Jurassic World: Dominion Star Sam Neill Gives Filming Update After Coronavirus Shutdown

Returning Jurassic Park star Sam Neill is unsure when work might resume on Jurassic World: Dominion after filming was halted just two weeks into production because of coronavirus. Work in London shut down in mid-March, leaving the cast and crew “in the fridge,” says Neill, who reprises his role as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant alongside original Jurassic Park co-stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, returning as Dr. Ellie Sattler and Dr. Ian Malcolm, respectively. The trio join franchise stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in the Colin Trevorrow-directed threequel, followup to Trevorrow’s Jurassic World and J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

“They got two weeks done,” Neill said on Fitzy & Wippa. “I was waiting in London for my stuff to start and then it became apparent it was going to close down in a day or two. I got a flight to Perth … made it as far as Sydney … and got into the quarantine thing.”

Previously set filming locations for Dominion include Hawaii, Vancouver, and London’s Pinewood Studios. Before filming was paused in London, Dominion was reportedly set for a May shoot in the island country of Malta. Neill is hopeful work can restart in Australia or New Zealand as both territories have since reopened following a steep drop in coronavirus cases.

“We’ll start as soon as we can. We’re supposed to be in London but it’s a complete mess at the moment,” he said. “I’d like to think that maybe we could start or restart in this part of the world and then finish off in the studio. We’re using the Bond stage to build these enormous sets in London. They’d like to use those, ideally, but if nothing is happening there, I don’t know when we can get started.”

As for Grant’s upcoming third experience with real-life dinosaurs following close counters in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, Neill quipped of the new movie, “Having been traumatized twice, it’s pretty hard to get him out of the dig. That’s going to be a plot point that they’ll have to get around.”

Fallen Kingdom ended with the genetically-engineered dinosaurs freely roaming the Earth, no longer containing the danger to man-made amusement parks. On reuniting the stars of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster, Trevorrow previously told Empire Magazine, “The next film allows the legacy characters to be a part of the story in an organic way. [Co-writer] Emily Carmichael and I call it ‘Jurassic Park VI,’ because it is.”

Jurassic World: Dominion is currently scheduled to open in theaters June 11, 2021.